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Broncos

Paxton Lynch is out for his third and biggest NFL victory: the Broncos' starting QB job

Paxton Lynch played three games his rookie season, throwing for 497 yards, two touchdowns and one interception.

Paxton Lynch's first offseason as an NFL quarterback included a brief vacation and then a month holed up in a converted 20,000-square-foot warehouse squeezed into the middle of an office complex 15 miles southwest of Deltona, Fla., his hometown.

For about four weeks before the Broncos' organized team activities (OTAs), which started this past week, Lynch spent his days at the D1 Sports Training center in Orlando lugging weights, sweating through conditioning drills and honing his footwork and throws with the help of Charlie Taaffe, a former play-caller and Canadian Football league coach.

This was where Lynch prepared for his life as a pro in 2016 too, before the NFL scouting combine and the draft. He returned almost exactly a year later with the goal of winning not just an NFL job, but the NFL job in Colorado as the Broncos' starting quarterback.

With the arrival of head coach Vance Joseph and return of offensive coordinator Mike McCoy, the Broncos will have a new look in 2017. But they start workouts with a familiar plot line, an open quarterback competition between Lynch and Trevor Siemian.

The prevailing belief is that Siemian, the team captain who won the starting job last year, has an edge because of experience and poise, among other things. But the "best man" will win, Joseph said, and for Lynch, a victory this summer would undoubtedly be the biggest of his young career.

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"I've had a year in the NFL and a year to adjust," he said. "I don't have that rookie season anymore. I'm ready to come in here and compete and have an opportunity to go out there and be the starter."

Feet come first

Lynch's winter and spring of 2016, when he was a quarterback in limbo, were spent with Taaffe at his side. Taaffe worked with Lynch to improve his footwork and knowledge of the game — of offenses, of coverages, of playing in a pro system after three years running the spread at Memphis.

Both knew Lynch could sell NFL teams with his size and athleticism.

But both knew the difficult transition that lie ahead.

"Last year it was pretty difficult for me just because what I did at Memphis was completely different than what we were doing with Coach (Gary) Kubiak," Lynch said. "The terminology was completely different. Even to where you called the strength of your formation was totally different than the way we called it in college."

A year ago the emphasis was footwork and board work, learning the rhythm and technique of playing under center, while trying to get a better grasp on reading defenses instead of turning to the sideline to receive an order from a coach.

The emphasis this year was more of the same, but with a slightly different approach.

"The thing he was most unfamiliar with coming out of college was learning to play under center," Taaffe said. "We worked hard on that last year leading up to the combine and his pro day to be able to show the coaches and scouts he can play under center. But he felt like that was still the thing he needed to most work on, so our whole emphasis was on under-center drops, dropback play- action, bootlegs, all the things that he felt he was least prepared for going into his rookie season."

The goal was to tweak and improve, not reconstruct.

"Because I had a year in the system, I knew how to talk the language," Lynch said. "So it was mostly just footwork."

The work typically started at 10:30 a.m., before or after a weightlifting session, and would last about 90 minutes. Footwork drills, quarterback-specific agility drills, five- and seven-step dropbacks. And then throwing, to any receiver in the building willing and capable of running routes, some of whom were University of Central Florida receivers.

Weightlifting sessions were tailored to the throwing sessions so as not to overload a certain muscle group, and classroom studies were replaced by talk of generalities. Lynch didn't have the completed Broncos playbook yet, but he had a working knowledge of McCoy's offense and visual evidence of how he has tailored his systems to his quarterbacks.

In short: Lynch knew to expect more shotgun formations.

"That is one thing I am definitely excited about just because my whole college system was shotgun really," Lynch said. "I know we're going to have to get under center. Pressing the ball downfield, I'm definitely excited about that too. Having the opportunity to run around a little bit, that excites me."

Familiarity breeds comfort and Lynch, who will be playing under his second head coach and in his second offensive system in as many years, has the benefit of time and repetitions. Not a lot. But some, with two starts and a year of learning alongside Siemian and with former quarterbacks coach Greg Knapp.

"He seems to have a much better grasp now of the mental part of learning and learning to be a professional quarterback," Taaffe said of Lynch. "I think he's much further along, certainly from the last time I worked with him."

The question he still has to answer, of course, is whether that progression is enough. Is Paxton Lynch an NFL starter?

Playing mind games

Maybe it comes with the gold jacket and bronze bust in Canton, but the rough patches of a legend's career are typically smoothed over and the lows are filled by the highs in hindsight.

John Elway knows this. He had a difficult rookie season in 1983 — 47.5 percent on completions, twice as many interceptions (14) as touchdown passes (seven), and a 54.9 passer rating — that gave way to a Hall of Fame career, a pair of Super Bowl championships and a status as one of the greatest quarterbacks of all time.

Lynch's first season — 59.0 percent on completions, two touchdown passes, one interception and a 79.2 passer rating in three games — was limited, but few would guess that by the critics near and far. His first-round draft selection was questioned, his grasp of the game was questioned, his accuracy was questioned, his potential was questioned.

But count Elway, the Broncos' general manager, among those expecting a significant year-two leap, on and off the field.

Those who know Lynch well say he is physically ready. He always has been ready in that regard, Taaffe and Joseph would argue.

At 6-foot-7 and 245 pounds, with quick feet and a strong arm, Lynch fits the mold.

"He's got that added ability of being able to extend plays and make plays with his feet, but it's hard," said Taaffe, a former Central Florida offensive coordinator. "I saw that with Blake (Bortles). I coached him four years in college and we were more of a pro-style system, so he had that kind of training going in of playing under center and reading coverages, and he got thrown into it four or five games into his rookie season. I don't know if he was ready for it."

But the Denver job requires more than that.

If Siemian's natural strengths are his arm and his mind, Lynch's natural strengths are his frame and his athleticism. The latter sold the Broncos, as well as other teams who also tried to trade up and draft Lynch. But the progression of an NFL quarterback is a steep climb that requires far more than just on-field play to reach the top.

"There's so much more than just ability," Taaffe said. "Paxton has as much raw physical talent as anyone in the league. But there is that learning curve, and there is that maturity in learning how to handle being a professional, and I think that's still a big part of what he's still learning."

Joseph calls it, simply, leadership.

"Paxton was a first-round pick for a reason," Joseph said. "He's a big guy with a big arm and is very athletic. I think playing that position is about decision-making. If he does those things better, he has a chance to compete to be our starting quarterback."

In year two, Lynch knows the criteria and the stakes of this quarterback competition. With two victories already on his NFL résumé, he's gunning for No. 3.

"I believe in myself to be the starter this year," he said. "I'm going to work hard, just like I did last year. I'm going to learn the offense, get extra work with these guys when I can and be in the building as much as I can at this time. That's what I'm aiming for. That's what I want to do."

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